Plain dry Tide as a cooling system cleaner?

[oilcan]

Has anyone every cleaned their cooling systems with plain old dry Tide laundry soap? I can't remember who told me about using it, but I did. I had an old Chevy truck that had a very dirty rusty cooling system. I drained the system, removed the thermostat, and added about a half of cup of Tide soap filled with water, started the truck for several minutes then drained. I could not believe the mess that came out. The new anti-freeze stayed clean looking for over a year, when the engine gave out.
Has anyone tried any other detergents? As I remember I was told Tide was the best cleaner.

 

[Chris142]

If I get a car in the shop that has a leaking trans or oil cooler and the whole system is contaminated with oil I use a gallon of Superclean or Simplegreen after fixing the problem.

These products seem to remove oil pretty good, guess they should also remove dirt and grime.

 

[labman]

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, interesting. I have on hand upper, lower radiator hose, thermostat, gasket, Prestone Low Tox antifreeze for my truck. Current antifreeze is well past where most BITOGers would have changed it. Likely I won't find the time until next week. I don't have any dry Tide. I am thinking low foaming dishwasher detergent.

 

[Jackpot01]

Couldnt this Dry Tide get lodged in the Radiator? Or cause unneeded damage to Plastic water pumps? I would love to try it but I am a lil cautious.

Eric

 

[Big Jim]

When I was a kid, my dad used washing soda to flush radiators and it worked very well. I would be reluctant to use Tide, not so much because i would be worried about damage, but more because I would be concerned about being able to thoroughly flush it all out before installing anti-freeze. I don't think the anti-freeze would like any detergent resedue.

 

[Matt_S]

I imagine it wouldn't be any more harsh than Prestone Super Cleaner, or a similar product. I think you'd want to use a flushing tee so that you're absolutely sure to get it all out, but I can't imagine the Tide causing any problems.

 

[Ray H]

These household cleaners are caustic to varying degrees* and may contain enzymes that breakdown organics - which is why they feel slick and work fine for dislodging dirt and removing stains, but worthless for disolving and dislodging built-up corrosion. The radiator cleaners such as Prestone's use various organic acids at safe concentration for that purpose.

*most (all?) dishwasher detergents are very caustic and dosed with chlorine to boot. Not a combination I'd want circulating, even temporarily, in an aluminum cooling system and engine.

Maybe my fears are unfounded, but since I'm paying the freight on my ride, I'll stick with tried and true purpose chemistry developed and marketed by companies with deep pockets.

 

[Stinky Peterson]

If you are going to clean the system with soap then use a powdered dishwasher soap such as Electrosol or Cascade. The problem with other soaps is they tend to suds too much and are hard to remove. Electric dishwasher soaps contain silicates are are compatible with cooling system components. I forgot to mention, dissolve it in hot water first.

We have been doing this for years and it is recommended by the major diesel engine manufacturers.

 

[pbm]

Originally posted by Stinky Peterson:
[QB] If you are going to clean the system with soap then use a powdered dishwasher soap such as Electrosol or Cascade. The problem with other soaps is they tend to suds too much and are hard to remove.

I agree with Stinky.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Stinky Peterson:
If you are going to clean the system with soap then use a powdered dishwasher soap such as Electrosol or Cascade. The problem with other soaps is they tend to suds too much and are hard to remove. Electric dishwasher soaps contain silicates are are compatible with cooling system components. I forgot to mention, dissolve it in hot water first.

We have been doing this for years and it is recommended by the major diesel engine manufacturers.

---

Ive used Cascade in the past with great results.
I'm a pipefitter/welder by trade and build chill water systems.When we have to clean dirty,lime scaled cooling towers and there piping we use a solution called Tower Terror.It is a liquid scrubber,which contains alot of muratic acid,along with other chemicals.The directions say to add 1 gallon per 5000 gallons of water.Well,I had a brainstorm one day.If this stuff cleans our systems this good,will it clean my 72 Chevy trucks cooling system?

I added a cup of the chemical,water,then started it up.After about 2-3 minutes of circulation,the radiator started popping holes.It looked like a sprinkler system!Needless to say I had to replace the hoses,radiator,and blocked off the heater core! In reality,all I needed was about a teaspoon of the chemical to clean the system.

 

[Stinky Peterson]

I've seen my dad clean cooling systems with muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. It worked very well but may clean a little too good. I have also seen Drano used to clean a system. The person had to remove the lower radiator hose to get out the large pieces of scale and rust that came out. I can't say I would recommend either one as both are very aggressive. We use Cascade to remove oil and a Cat product to remove scale.

 

[Bret Chase]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris142:
If I get a car in the shop that has a leaking trans or oil cooler and the whole system is contaminated with oil I use a gallon of Superclean or Simplegreen after fixing the problem.

These products seem to remove oil pretty good, guess they should also remove dirt and grime.

---

My CAT mechanic tells me that in the shop they use plain old liquid dish soap to remove oil from the cooling system after a trans cooler failure and it works quite well... now I just wish he hadn't told me that a snap ring broke and took out a bearing and rear seal in my TH63's trans to the tune of $2500 to fix....

-Bret

 

[Shannow]

I wouldn't go much further than washing soda.

Most washing powders are "filled" with salt to make them seem like better value for money.

 

[stevencarroll]

I wonder if vineagar would work? It works on my coffie maker.

 

[Shannow]

Steven,
the chemical cleans at work (both on iron based metallurgies and copper based) use citric acid.

 

[Ray H]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Shannow:
Most washing powders are "filled" with salt to make them seem like better value for money.

---

You and I share a healthy dose of cynicism (

)*, but there may also be water conditioning properties at work that enhance the effectiveness of the actual detergent and enzymes.

*Seems to be a national trait of Aussies to see clearly through BS...

 

[Shannow]

Ray,
they'd get away with that argument if they put the same amount of salt in the liquid detergents, which are undoubtedly mostly water (cheaper than salt even) to enhance their solubility

.

 

[Kestas]

Mercedes recemmends detergent flushing to clean if oily residue is present, especially after a head gasket job. The Mercedes crowd uses Shout instead of the expensive dealer stuff.

 

[CoolantChemist]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Stinky Peterson:
I've seen my dad clean cooling systems with muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. It worked very well but may clean a little too good. I have also seen Drano used to clean a system. The person had to remove the lower radiator hose to get out the large pieces of scale and rust that came out. I can't say I would recommend either one as both are very aggressive. We use Cascade to remove oil and a Cat product to remove scale.

---

Wouldn't HCl be a little too much and strip any corrosion points of their protection until you get another corrosion inhibitor on there?

 

[Kestas]

Personally I would use HCl only for removing lime buildup. Lime melts away with HCl. I use semi-spent HCl in the lab to clean my humidifier. But HCl is way too agressive on the metal for any more than a few minutes of contact, certainly not good for the extremely thin metal used in radiators.

There are two basic methods of cleaning cooling systems.... cleaning oily residue (the original question of this thread), and cleaning scale. These two methods have been mixed in this discussion. Don't confuse the two. Citric acid flushes aren't appropriate for cleaning oil residue, and detergent flushes aren't appropriate for cleaning solid deposits and scale.